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A SENSE OF BELONGING
2025

Where: Nobu Hotel Los Cabos
What: Exhibition / Pavilion / Film / Music / Dinner Experience

A week-long immersive exhibition exploring the journey of finding a “home away from home,” a fitting question for a hotel, and of rediscovering home within ourselves. Ten artists were invited to reflect on home as a place, a sense of self, or an identity, and to ask where we belong in an increasingly global, transient world.

I curated and directed the program and designed its pavilion on the hotel’s central terrace. The week brought together film, 3D art, live music, an artist panel on how the theme lived in each artist’s work, and a dinner with Nobu’s head chef. For the closing party, my producer and I named each cocktail after a step in the artist’s journey, from beginning to end, with drinks created by the mixologist.

PHOTOS

RENDERS

FIRST CONCEPT RENDERS
FREESTANDING GALLERY WALLS IN THE TSUKI CONFERENCE HALL.
THE DESIGN LATER MOVED OUTDOORS INTO A CUSTOM PAVILION ON THE SHIAWASE TERRACE.

SITE SURVEY
ON-SITE SCOUT: MEASURING THE SPACES THAT BECAME THE 3D MODEL

TECHNICAL DRAWINGS
SPEC PACKAGE I CREATED FOR LOCAL FABRICATION: DIMENSIONS, FINISHES & BUILD DETAILS (IN SPANISH)

VIEW DRAWINGS →

PROPOSAL DECK
FINAL APPROVED PROPOSAL: ARTISTS, PAVILION DESIGN & EXHIBITION-WEEK PROGRAM

VIEW DECK →

CREDITS

Client: Nobu Hotel Los Cabos & AIC Hotel Group
Creative Direction, Curation & Pavilion Design: Claudia Leal
Executive Producer & Curation: Rodrigo Niño
Graphic Design CHAYUL: Alberto Nabij (postcards, itinerary, dinner and cocktail menus, pavilion vinyl, and all Chayul graphic assets)
Graphic Design AIC: Carla Sosa, Eric Mendoza
Photography: Marian Carrasquero
Artists: Beatriz Cifuentes, Sarko Meene, Jenna Krypell, Gluk, Marian Carrasquero, Julia Wheatley, Nicolas Manrique, Mateo Sicilia
Music: Markciano (Mark Berendson), Frank Alcock

CLAUDIA LEAL

EXPERIENTIAL DESIGNER & CREATIVE DIRECTION

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